


Above the cold sky shone

by echelons



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 02:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15876264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echelons/pseuds/echelons
Summary: For witches and fey, the equinox is a time of renewal and new acquaintance.





	Above the cold sky shone

“Why do _I_ have to carry the frogs’ eyes?”

The light was fading fast over the dirty gray streets of New York City, and the autumn air held a biting chill. A dark-skinned woman with a high mohawk was striding purposefully past a row of dingy shops and high-rise apartments, her long coat swirling impressively in the wind. Beside her, struggling to keep up with her much taller companion, a small girl was grumbling audibly.

“Eyeballs, freshly plucked from the heads of frogs! Come get your gross, slimy, pickled eyeballs,” Kitty Pryde said. The young teenager was a mass of dark curly hair bundled up in a winter’s coat. In her hands she clutched a battered brown paper bag, which she was eyeing with distaste. “Tasty frog’s eyes, perfect for witchcraft!”

“Kitten, someone might hear you.”

“Whatever,” Kitty said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like they’d care. They’re New Yorkers.”

Ororo Munroe gave her charge a look somewhere between exasperated and fond as they stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. After a moment, her expression became serious as she studied the girl. “It’s a lot of responsibility, your first equinox ceremony.”

“I know.” Kitty said. She didn’t meet Ororo’s steady gaze, staring resolutely at the small park across the street instead.

“And sometimes that responsibility means carrying frogs’ eyes in a bag for several blocks.”

“I _know_.” Kitty said, a small smile quirking at the corners of her mouth.

“Do you know that we are, all of us, tremendously proud of you?” Ororo asked. “You will do wonderfully tonight. We have faith in you.”

Kitty mumbled something that Ororo chose to take as a loving acknowledgment of her praise, but she was spared from any further demonstrations by the changing of the light. They crossed the street briskly, Kitty shivering despite her coat as the temperature dropped even further. It wasn’t until they were halfway past the park that Ororo realized that perhaps the sudden drop in temperature wasn’t entirely natural.

The park was a small, dismal square of trees whose leaves clung to the branch brown and shriveled. It was encircled by a wrought-iron fence broken by a gate to which the City of New York had attached a plastic sign declaring park hours. Ororo halted abruptly in front of this gate, Kitty stumbling to a stop behind her. After a moment of careful consideration, Ororo stepped through the gate and into the park.

“What are you-“ Kitty started to ask, but she fell silent as she watched Ororo move. The older woman was moving as if following a scent or sound that Kitty could not detect, a precise form of motion that Kitty knew meant she was on the trail of something magical. Kitty’s own perception of magic was still largely untrained, and she had learned by now that just because she couldn’t sense something didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Ororo picked her way carefully over to the other end of the small park, the side permanently in the shade of a large concrete office building, and came to a stop, resting her arms on top of the fence. She motioned for Kitty to join her as she asked, “Do you remember what we taught you about the autumn equinox? Specifically, what the equinox has to do with the fey?”

Kitty scrunched up her nose in thought, “The Courts switch, right? The equinox is when the Winter Court takes over from the Summer Court.”

“What that means for us,” Ororo said, studying the ugly high-rise building in front of her as if it were the most architecturally interesting building in the world, “is that the autumnal equinox is when the Winter fey move back into their seasonal habitats.”

Something changed in the corner of Kitty’s vision then. Not exactly a movement, more a resettling of the light, as if the world had decided to finally show her what it had thus far kept hidden. Kitty turned her head to look and was astonished to see that standing on the other side of Ororo, in the spot where moments before had been only empty space, was a fey.        

She was stunningly beautiful, in an eerie, dangerous way. The last rays of sun glinted off her long blonde hair and when the light hit her just so, it seemed her very skin was transparent, as if it were carved out of ice. Frost bloomed on the railing where she trailed her fingers across it, and yet, when she raised her hand to stroke Ororo’s cheek, the touch was startlingly warm.

Ororo raised her own hand to cover the one on her cheek, pressing the fey’s hand briefly before catching it and pulling it down, away from her. “Frost,” she said, carefully extricating her hand from where their fingers were tangled together. “I hope the equinox finds you well.”

“Weather witch,” the fey said, in a voice that surprised Kitty. Fey were supposed to have voices like the crack of dead branches underfoot or the whistle of the wind across tundra. They were not supposed to have cultured, posh British accents filled with a peculiarly human condescension. Frost’s gaze cut towards Kitty, hard as ice, and there was nothing human about the bright blue depths of her eyes. “You let children into your coven now?”

“Oh, please,” Kitty snorted. “It’s the twenty-first century, no one calls them _covens_ anymore.”

“Rude little thing, isn’t she?” Frost said, and her smile was as cold as her gaze. “What’s your name, child?”

Ororo gave Kitty a warning look, but she needn’t have worried. Kitty raised her chin stubbornly, the curls around her face bouncing slightly. “I’m called Shadow. And I won’t be so easy to trick into giving you my true name, so don’t try it.”

Frost’s smile broadened, her teeth glittering an unnatural, painful white. “I’ll remember that.”

Ororo sighed inwardly. Whether the young girl knew it or not, she had just issued a challenge, and Ororo doubted Frost would let it go. If there was one thing she knew, it was how infernally persistent the fey woman could be. Like most of her sort, she was a tricky ally and a truly formidable adversary. It was probably best to remove these two from each other’s presence before the situation deteriorated.

“It is, as always, a pleasure, Frost,” Ororo nodded politely. “On behalf of the entire Xavier Association, we look forward to working with you in the coming months. But for the moment, we do have matters we need to attend to.”            

“Yes, of course, darling. It was lovely to meet you, _Shadow_.” Frost nodded at Kitty, her voice lingering mockingly on the last word.

“Oh, yeah, a real pleasure,” Kitty said, rolling her eyes. Sometime soon, Ororo would have to give her student a lecture on not purposefully antagonizing powerful immortal beings.

“Weather witch.” Frost’s lips ghosted across Ororo’s cheek as she moved closer and whispered in her ear. “I’ll see you around, Ororo Munroe.” She leaned back and smiled her bright, predatory smile. Then she was gone, disappearing between one breath and the next. As if life had suddenly returned to the area, the chill in the air lost its edge, and the sounds of traffic seemed closer at hand. Ororo took a deep breath to steady herself.

“What’d she say?” Kitty demanded, her brow furrowed.

Ororo laughed softly. “Nothing to worry about, dear. Just… a reminder, of sorts. Frost and I have a long history.”

Kitty’s frown deepened. She opened her mouth to say something, but Ororo didn’t give her a chance to voice her concerns. “Come on, let’s get home. After all, you still have an equinox ceremony to prepare for.”

The girl pulled a face, and the taller woman laughed and put an arm around her shoulder affectionately as they exited the park. Neither of them looked back, so neither of them saw the way the light caught, as if sparkling on ice, as a figure stood by the railing and watched them go.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the [Shelley](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45129/lines-the-cold-earth-slept-below) poem. Inspired by a prompt from [this](http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/au-idea.htm) AU idea generator. Obviously, I'm playing a little fast and loose with the fairy myths here.
> 
> Please comment and let me know if you liked it!


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